Afghanistan — Coalition, Afghan Forces Capture Taliban Leaders, Others

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4, 2010 — Coali­tion and Afghan forces have detained more than 50 insur­gents in Afghanistan in recent days, includ­ing a senior Tal­iban explo­sives expert and an arms and drug traf­fick­er, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force offi­cials today con­firmed the cap­ture of a major Tal­iban nar­cotics and muni­tions traf­fick­er dur­ing an Afghan and coali­tion com­bined oper­a­tion in Kan­da­har province Aug. 2. The man also was want­ed for sui­cide bomb attacks near south­ern Afghanistan’s bor­der with Iran. 

The arrest came the same day a sui­cide bomber det­o­nat­ed a vehi­cle-borne explo­sive near a police truck in Kan­da­har City, killing five chil­dren. The attack tar­get­ed the Dand dis­trict gov­er­nor, which was the eighth such attempt on his life, offi­cials said. 

In oth­er operations: 

— Coali­tion forces and Afghan sol­diers detained sev­er­al insur­gents and a Tal­iban com­man­der at a com­pound in the Arghandab dis­trict of Kan­da­har province last night. The man is known as an expert and facil­i­ta­tor for bomb­ing attacks in the area. The com­bined force fired no shots in the operation. 

— A com­bined force detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents in the north­ern province of Bagh­lan last night while in pur­suit of a Tal­iban com­man­der in charge of many insur­gent fight­ers. Tar­get­ing com­pounds in the Baghlan‑e Jadid dis­trict, the com­bined force detained the sus­pects after ques­tion­ing res­i­dents at the scene. Afghan and coali­tion forces did not fire their weapons. 

— ISAF forces fought off a small group of insur­gents that attempt­ed to breach the perime­ter of Kan­da­har Air­field yes­ter­day with rock­et and sui­cide bomb attacks. The attack con­sist­ed of mul­ti­ple rock­et attacks, mul­ti­ple sui­cide bombers and small-arms fire. ISAF forces killed five insurgents. 

— Com­bined forces cap­tured sev­er­al Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work and Tal­iban lead­ers dur­ing 24 offen­sive oper­a­tions in the past week in which more than 50 sus­pects were detained and no civil­ians were injured. The cap­tured include sev­er­al Haqqani lead­ers oper­at­ing in Gardez and Khost provinces, and a Tal­iban sub­com­man­der from Hel­mand province. 

Tal­iban-led con­flicts have claimed the lives of more than 1,100 civil­ians and injured more than 1,300 oth­ers in Afghanistan this year, Afghan inte­ri­or min­istry spokesman Zama­rai Bashari said. 

Source:
Com­piled from Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force Joint Com­mand News Releases 

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